Feb 15, 2010

Muppet Comic Mondays: On the Road #2

As you recall last week, there were no new comics to review. Well, this week there were two we could choose from: The Muppet Show Comic Book: On the Road #2 and Muppet King Arthur #1. Well, we have both of those reviews done, but since we've already reviewed one On the Road issue, we figured we'd just carry on with that trend. Click here to read our review of On the Road #1.

The Muppet Show Comic Book #2
On the Road - Part 2: "His Wackiness Clint Wacky"

James Gannon - The Muppet Show on the Road #2… as I like to call it part of the reason I gave Boom 9 bucks in one day (I also recommend the Italian Paperinik reprints in their Walt Disney Comics and Stories line). Having a less than successful first show (they made an almost immeasurable net profit) , the Muppet Road Show bus pulls into Little Statwald. A town so small, it consists of only 2 families… and I bet you can guess who. With Fozzie leaving to take his comedy act solo, Kermit hires a hack comedian named Clint Wacky (who repeats “Just waiting till Hollywood calls” like a broken record, and bears a striking resemblance to Lew Zeland, by the way). Not to mention his comedy writers Stadler and Waltorf, who supply him with material stolen from only the finest Christmas Crackers. Of course, his material plays well with the Little Statwaldians, but his combination of jokes worse than Fozzie’s and unsettling insult humor don’t sit well with Kermit.

He deals with the matter as civil as possible, but when Clint and his writers reject unauthorized, unsolicited work from Scooter, the entire gang sees the menacing ego behind the horrible jokes. Now they have to make him leave on his own accord, which he stubbornly won’t.

Now, as this takes place in the context of the show while they’re on the road, I feel it’s necessary to mention the Loretta Lynn episode of The Muppet Show. So there, I mentioned it. A lot of the skits have to adapt to makeshift scenery. As last issue’s “Vet’s Hospital” turned into a traveling medicine show, Pigs in Space somehow went through a time warp, and all their technology reverts back to the 1800’s. We even have a clever spin on the talking houses (now trailers) and Robin and the Woodland Gerbils camp troop demonstrating how to make a camp fire (Hey, apparently Robin belongs to 2 fictitious Boy Scouts type groups). And with that action going on stage, there’s a nice character piece on Scooter in this issue. Roger appears to really like writing for him, giving him the same depth that he had back in the Muppet Show.

Of course, mush like last issue, we close with Fozzie’s unsuccessful attempts to get back to his stand up roots. And done in the same avant-garde style as the last one. While his solo misadventure last issue turned into an alphabetical exercise in his failure, this issue becomes a one word (or is that picture) rebus with a clever ending. Surely, this is Roger’s style of humor, dating back to the first (and only) Disney Adventures Muppet comic. While I like to see how he adapts to the Muppet Show, I really like to see how the Muppet Show adapts to him.

Over all, it feels like Clint is an experiment in a guest star, which is the next four part arc. I really hope they all get this out of control when they get their appearances in, because it works just perfectly here. He almost seems like what would happen if one of the guest stars on the show simply hated being there for anything other than a bump in their acting resume. And, as I just stated, I’m loving the small avant-garde strips at the end. I wish that this arc wasn’t truncated to fit Pigs in Space issue 0 into a graphic novel. I’d love to see another solo Fozzie adventure.